The Earrings
by autumnrose2010
Summary: Illya spends a special Valentine's Day with a seriously ill Marion. Just a one-shot for now, but I might consider continuing it.


**February 14, 1990**

Illya's heart was heavy as he pulled into the hospital's parking lot. His teenage daughters, Monika and Nakita, were with him. His son, Elijah, was away at university in another state. He parked the car, and he and the girls got out and walked to the building in silence. The automatic double doors slid open, and the antiseptic smell of the hospital's interior assaulted their nostrils. Accustomed to the odor, they barely noticed it as they headed for the elevator.

Illya hoped that Marion would be awake when they arrived. He knew that she needed her rest, but he looked forward to being able to visit with her, especially today, as he had a surprise for her.

As they entered her hospital room, they saw that she was sitting up in bed, smiling weakly. She was pale and thinner than she'd ever been before, and the chemotherapy had made her once-luxurious blonde hair come out in clumps, but her face lit up immediately at the sight of her husband and daughters. To Illya, she was still every bit as beautiful as she'd been the first time he'd seen her, nearly twenty-six years ago.

"Hi." Lightly he kissed her lips, then sat in the chair beside her bed. Monika and Nakita sat in chairs opposite him.

"Hi, honey." Illya heard how exhausted she was, and his heart went out to her.

"Rough night?" he asked.

"Yeah." The dark circles underneath her eyes told him she'd gotten little sleep the previous night. He wondered how many times she'd thrown up. The chemotherapy was harsh, but they both knew that it was their only hope for buying, if not the hope of an entire lifetime together, then at least a few more weeks or months in which to share their love.

"I have a surprise for you." Illya took a small box from his jacket pocket and set it on the tray before her. "Happy Valentine's Day, sweetheart."

"Oh!" She smiled self-consciously. "It _is _today, isn't it? I'd completely forgotten..."

Illya smiled back. "That is perfectly understandable, under the circumstances."

She picked the box up and opened it to find a beautiful pair of sterling silver earrings in the shape of horses. "They're lovely!" Tears came to her eyes as her stick-like arms reached for her husband. "Oh, Illya..."

"I thought of you as soon as I saw them," he told her. "Remember that trip we made to the ranch in Wyoming when the children were little?"

"Boy, do I!" The way her face glowed at that moment made it easy to forget how sick she really was. "The lake, the rocks, the trees..."

"The air was so fresh and clean. It reminded me of the Carpathian Mountains in the late spring or early summer," Illya added.

"That seems so long ago now...like another lifetime..." Her clear blue eyes held a far-away look. "Will you put them in for me, Illyusha?"

"Certainly." Gingerly he took the earrings from the box and inserted them into his wife's ear lobes.

"They look really nice, Mom!" Monika spoke for the first time since they'd arrived.

"Thank you, sweetie. How's school?"

Monika wrinkled her nose. "Other than algebra, it's OK."

"She has straight A's in all her classes," Illya said proudly.

"I sure had to work my butt off for the one in algebra," Monika grumbled.

"Of course it's a lot harder for her now that Jeremy Thatcher has become such a distraction," Nakita teased.

"Oh, really?" Marion's eyebrows rose in interest. "Who's Jeremy Thatcher?"

Monika shrugged nonchalantly. "He's just a guy." The way she blushed deeply and couldn't meet her mother's eyes made Marion suspect that Jeremy Thatcher was much more than 'just a guy' to her older daughter.

"And what about you, Nicky? How are things going for you?"

"Pretty good," Nakita replied. "They're talking about a trip to Washington, D.C. for the chorus during spring break."

"That's nice." Marion yawned. "I wish your brother could be here." Elijah's absence was a real bone of contention between Illya and his son. The older Kuryakin had wanted Elijah to take the spring term off so that he could spend more time with his mother, but the young man had insisted that there would be plenty of opportunity to visit her during the summer. Illya knew that his son was in denial and hoped that he'd come to his senses before it was too late.

"He sends his love." Illya tenderly caressed the side of his wife's face. "Perhaps we should go now. You need your rest."

"Oh, no, please. I'm all right." Marion yawned again.

"It is all right." Illya stroked what was left of her hair. "You can go to sleep, if you want. We will still be here when you awaken."

As hard as she struggled to stay awake so that she could continue talking with her husband and daughters, Marion's eyelids became heavier and heavier, until at last they closed. Illya continued to sit at her side and stroke her hair, thinking about how much he loved her.

**RIP Jill Ireland 4/24/36-5/18/90**


End file.
